Alignment lines or other sighting marks have been used on putters and other golf clubs in the past. Such alignment lines have been provided to aid the golfer in hitting a golf ball in a proper straight line between the golf ball and the golf ball cup. Assuming the golf ball were on a flat surface, if the alignment line was correctly aimed at the cup, it was often believed the golfer should be able to putt the golf ball into the cup with little problem.
In the actual practice, however, the golfer would be more apt to miss than to make his or her putt. It was often felt, in the prior art, that the golfer's failure to make the putt was due to an improper swing. That is to say, it was assumed that when the golf club was initially properly aligned toward the cup, it was correctly aligned, but when the golfer swung through the putt, the golfer would rotate the shaft of the putter one way or the another, so that it was no longer in a proper alignment to the cup, and the ball, upon being hit, would not fall into the cup.
It has been determined, however, the failure to make a putt, can also be due to the fact that individuals have inherent sighting errors so that when they think the alignment lines on putters or other golf clubs are properly aligned towards the golf cup, in fact the golf club is misaligned.
In the prior art, it is know to test golfers for their sighting errors and also to place a sighting error correction stripe or line on a golf club putter to compensate for the individual's sighting error. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,680,860 and 3,826,495 to Elkins. The Elkins technology is over 20 years old, but apparently has not met with commercial success. The applicant herein believes that the Elkins idea of compensating for an individual's sighting error is basically sound, however, the Elkins apparatus set forth in his issued patents is far to complicated for convenient use and, moreover, it is believed to induce additional errors which are not or cannot be compensated for.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide a convenient method and apparatus for correcting the sighting error of an individual in the context of using a golf club to try to place a golf ball in a golf ball cup. It is another object to reduce the errors which can be induced by prior art apparatus and furthermore to simplify the apparatus to make it easier to use in the context of pro-shop, where a golfer might be fitted for golf clubs.